The Battle Afterwards
by Izzu
Summary: Post Destiny. After the end of the second Bloody Valentine war, the situation between Earth and PLANT was still fragile. A different path would be taken, in order not to repeat the same mistakes.
1. Promised Land

az: Since well... this always happened when I return and take a nostalgia look on old fandom. This would be my take of what would happen after the second war, with reference on the extra scenes in Final Plus and Special Edition. There would be mentions of characters/plot from Astray universe but since I can't get much info on Astray R/B, Delta Astray, Frame Astray, Seed VS Astray... some of the plot might be AU pertaining to the MSV universe.

Tho truthfully, this piece should be short anyway.

[EDIT] Fixed dating. I forgot when was the new treaty made.

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><p><span>The Battle Afterwards<span>

Promised Land

Written by Izzu

o

o

****Early Cosmic Era 74**, After War, ORB Union**

"Wonder what we should do for now, Lunamaria?" Shinn suddenly started asking as both of them walked into the shuttle heading straight to Carpentaria.

"Eh?" Luna gasped as she turned towards him. She shrugged. "Perhaps... go back to PLANT? I heard Minerva would arrive to ORB in these few days. By now, it should finish being repaired after all. I don't know what ZAFT will do for now, but I guess... we'll just wait and see?"

Shinn let out a long sigh.

"Going back to PLANT... huh?"

xxx

**Several weeks later. ORB Union**

Athrun slammed the desk as he turned to Kira.

"You're going to join ZAFT? Kira?"

Kira smiled weakly to his friend. "Lacus was in PLANT after all. And I think it would be better if I joined her and take an active role there, managing things from her side. We still have a lot of work to do, haven't we? Even with the new treaty already in commence, it would still be a while before everything would start to settle down."

Athrun blinked. "B-but! What about ORB?"

Kira smiled before exchanging knowing looks to Cagalli.

"I'll leave Cagalli, ORB and Archangel to you, Athrun. You can take my position. In return, I'll watch over PLANT with Lacus. It should be a fair trade, eh?"

"Kira!" Athrun gasped.

"I believe this was the best decision we have taken." Athrun turned to Cagalli in surprise as she spoke. "This way, even if there could still be some small faction who would try to disturb this peace we had so hard to achieve, with both of us working together from either side; we should be able to work together to solve it without starting yet another war."

Kira shrugged as he walked to Cagalli's side. "You could say both of us are making use of everything we have. That is... the very fact that Cagalli and I are twins; despite one is a Natural and another, Coordinator. Even if our real parents have not planned for either of us to take on this kind of an important role in this world, I believe they would have agreed on this. If both of us have been able to co-exist together in peace, it shouldn't be any different for Earth and PLANT. I believe... the late Lord Uzumi would also agree. This is one way we could continue on following his wishes for a better world."

He sighed as he held Cagalli's hand, before turning back to him. "And Athrun, with you taking an active role in ORB's administration... certainly you should be able to do something more than before." Kira sighed. "We were wrong last time, to choose to disappear after the first war. So this time, let us do this properly. And it's not as if we're doing this alone. Reverend Malchio has also contacted all other of our allies to help out, so it should be fine."

Kira smiled weakly to him. "I'm okay with this. The arrangements have already been made. Don't worry, it's not as if we would never meet again."

Athrun sighed. "If you have decided on that..."

xxx

**Four Months later, Carpentaria Base.**

"Re-training... is it? I wonder if every other military base around are receiving this same orders," said Shinn as Luna shrugged.

"Can't be helped, can it? The main reason the war went out of control was because a lot of lives had been lost every time a battle was started. Because of that, even more people would join the war to avenge those who have fallen. So I guess by doing this, the higher ups wanted to reduce casualties from both sides?"

Shinn sighed. "So now they want to try implementing ways to reduce casualties in battles? Just like... how Freedom and Justice fight? Wonder if I can ever fight like them?"

Lunamaria smiled. "You'd definitely can! Didn't Kira said so before?" she said as she glanced towards the sky. "We'll work together... this time. Surely we could achieve that peaceful world we've been dreamed about this time."

"Together?"

Lunamaria cocked her head at him. "What is it?"

Shinn shrugged nervously. "I... still haven't apologized to that person. Heh... then again I didn't even say things properly with Kira the other day. Yet, that guy... he could still smile to me like there was nothing between us before! I wonder... if I could really—"

Lunamaria chuckled. "You did talk things to him that day, Shinn. All that crying..."

Shinn's face turned red almost immediately. "That's not—!"

Luna grinned. "As for Miss Cagalli, perhaps we could see her again later. We were supposed to go back to ORB soon, with Minerva to pick up our new captain for the ship."

"A new captain?" Shinn gasped as he remembered Rey, and Captain Gladys. Minerva had since been without a captain after the war. So, finally a new officer would be assigned to Minerva, eh? "But from ORB?" he gasped again as Lunamaria shrugged.

"Since we're all on friendly terms now, it wouldn't be surprising to see everyone started moving about freely. Perhaps the new officer had something to do in ORB. But that as far as I know about it. Aside from the fact the new officer would be quite high-ranking. I wonder what our duties would be for now..."

Shinn whistled softly to himself.

_So this was his new battle... huh?_


	2. Life Goes On

az: Since I kinda wanna connect this to SEED vs Astray despite knowing so little about it, I'm hitching up the time here and there. And since this should follow mostly canon past GSD and MSV, and not connected to Choices and Decisions; I probably will make up some side plots so that I could allow some character room where they _could_ have interacted between. It has been a while since I placed Generation of CE.

EDITED. Since my brain juggling between different time period at the same time gets confusing.

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><p><span>The Battle Afterwards<span>

Life Goes On

Written by Izzu

o

o

**National Security Headquarters, ORB Union**

Kira opened his own locker as he looked down on the new uniform he had stored inside. Now that he have settled everything regarding his situation in ORB, perhaps it was time for the next step. Kira smiled weakly to himself.

At one point in the past, he himself had don the uniform of the soldier from the Earth Alliance Federation. And because of the second war, he had don ORB's uniform... even given a much higher rank than he used to receive before. As for now, finally he would be joining ZAFT.

To think he used to say that he would _never_ join ZAFT.

But it cannot be helped now, is it?

Then again, even if did he join ZAFT... it should make no difference. All of them... were still humans, were they not? No matter if either of them had been Naturals, Coordinators... or even Martians.

_"It should be all right..."_

Kira took out the uniform as he started to remove his own ORB uniform...

xxx

Every officer he passed by started to stand up straight and saluted him as Kira smiled to them nervously. Kira jumped as Mwu suddenly caught him by surprise.

"What are you doing being so surprised? Regardless what kind of uniform you wear, you will always be an important officer of ORB."

"Yes," said Kira gratefully as he turned around to see all of the officers had stopped to give him a reassuring nod. He smiled at them before turning to Mwu.

"But Mwu, what are you doing here?"

Mwu shrugged the question away. "Murrue and Andrew had gone up to see Kisaka for some important discussion. They kinda took so long... so I was curious."

Kira grinned.

"Oh, Mwu... are you jealous? Both of them had been living together after all while you were away..."

Mwu started to laugh as he grabbed Kira under his arm.

"Cheeky bastard! We really need to catch up on _a lot _of things, you and me!" he exclaimed as he started to squeeze Kira out of fondness. They continued at it along the way as a new voice caught their attention. Both of them hurried into the office as they found Colonel Kisaka, Miss Murrue and Andrew Bartfield inside.

"What's the matter, everyone?" Kira exclaimed before noticing the screen on top of the desk. "Canard?" he exclaimed as he rushed towards them.

"What is this? Is there a problem... Mister Kisaka?"

Kisaka just shrugged. "It's just some very small incidents. It might be just us being too wary or it might turn out to be big later. Even now, we can't really be sure that everyone would finally stop fighting. Despite Miss Lacus and Cagalli's influence, there might still be small factions that might regard them as still being inexperienced and unworthy to lead everyone to peace. Regardless, we should leave them to handle this for now."

"Really? But if it's like that—!" Kira suddenly went quiet. He bit his lips as he turned towards Canard. "Are you sure you would be fine?"

**"I will. This is not the first time I'm handling these kinds of jobs anyway. I have my team with me after all."**

Kira turned to look at the screen as Canard Pars gave him a reassuring smile.

**"It should be fine. Compared to this matter, you and your friends have an even more important duty to take care of. Leave small matters like this to us mercenaries to handle."**

Andrew shrugged. "Lady Sahaku is also overseeing this issue. So you shouldn't be worrying about it too much. And you shouldn't forget that _this_ guy also has his own mobile suit, that was as strong as Freedom and Justice."

Kira bit his lips as Mwu gave him a nudge. He looked up to see everyone giving him a smile.

"Just as I have decided to go to PLANT, this had to happen—" He sighed. If what Canard said was true, if there was some kind of imminent danger in the future... how would this affect ORB and PLANT—! Perhaps it was better that...

"Even if you_ are _very strong, you can't be watching over so many places at the same time. Have faith on all of us," said Murrue as Kira looked up to her. He turned his attention back towards the computer screen as he stared towards the image of Canard.

Andrew grinned. "Just let them do their job and you do yours, kid. If you start butting in on other people's job aside from your own, it probably be a long time until you get to be reunited with your precious girlfriend."

"Mister Bartfield!" Kira exclaimed, as his cheeks burned. Everyone around him started to laugh as Kira glanced back to Canard.

**"Then, I should be going. We'll send another report once we get some new information after this investigation."**

Kira nodded slowly as the line was cut. So even Canard was going his own path elsewhere...

He recalled the first time he had met Canard. That time, he was with his old comrades from the Junk Guild and Serpent Tail; who have been called to help protect the hidden Terminal factory. It had surprised him, to learn that he had a brother—another remnant of his dark origins—yet it also made him happy. It struck him on how differently their paths had branched off from each other. Cagalli being the leader of ORB, him... about to be one of the higher ranking officer in ZAFT and Canard, a mercenary. Yet, their roles would be supporting each other indirectly...

"Don't worry about him. This new job was a bit personal for him too, so it's better if he and the others take care of this themselves," Kisaka added as Kira nodded again.

"That aside—" Mwu started to say as he slapped Kira's back a bit hard. "What handsome lad you've become, eh? No matter what uniform you wear, you always looked good."

"Mwu!" Kira cried out as Murrue patted his shoulders fondly.

"You're finally leaving this place, huh?" she suddenly said as Kira nodded. "You'd probably be assigned to a new team, but you know something? To me... even if you're going away, you will always be part of Archangel."

Murrue pulled Kira into a hug. "Don't forget to visit."

xxx

"Shinn! Don't stray so far!"

Shinn Asuka turned towards Lunamaria as they got off from Minerva. He rolled his eyes at her. "Relax, Lunamaria. We're all allies now, isn't it? Some of the other officers had also gone out for a while from the ship."

"I know that!" she argued back. "But what if the new commander finally comes to Minerva? Miss Hilda said there should be someone staying behind to greet him while she and the other officers attend to other businesses."

"Ahh... it's not that I'm going out too far—"

"Sister—!"

Lunamaria and Shinn immediately turned around to see Meyrin running towards them happily. Both sisters embraced as Lunamaria looked at her in surprise.

"Meyrin! What are you doing—"

Meyrin grinned. "Obviously to join up with you guys! It's been a long time!"

Shinn and Lunamaria blinked at her. "You mean... Meyrin, did you know who was the new commander we were supposed to meet up here?" Shinn asked as Meyrin just shrugged at them in amusement.

Both of them turned their attention from Meyrin as finally they noticed another car finally stopping near the port. Walking out of the car was Athrun Zala, Kira Yamato and Cagalli Yula Athha. A significant thing to note to them was that while both Athrun and Cagalli were in their official ORB uniform, Kira was wearing a white ZAFT uniform.

Shinn and Luna yelped in surprise as they stared at each other. Shinn cocked his head as he turned to see the three started to walk towards them. He and Lunamaria immediately straightened up to give their salute.

_So finally a time when they would be working together has arrived_, Shinn wondered as Kira and Cagalli smiled to him.


	3. You Resembled Me

az: I gonna give Kira a break this time. Can't allow his to be all serious all the time.

I'll try writing out scenes as long as I could, but well... it depends on situation. Next chapter should be the last. Thank you for reading.

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><p><span>The Battle Afterwards<span>

You Resembled Me

Written by Izzu

o

o

"Kira...? Athrun?"

Kira cocked his head to one side as he smiled in greeting. "It's been a while, how do you do? Shinn... Lunamaria."

Shinn and Lunamaria nodded their head as Shinn turned his attention towards Cagalli. He bowed.

"Sorry if this came a bit late... but for everything in the past, I'd like to express my deepest apology!" Cagalli blinked as she turned towards Kira and Athrun. Both of them shrugged as Shinn straightened up again. "I had been so impulsive and I only been thinking selfishly for myself. Because of that, I have said so many hurtful things to you. Right now, I deeply regretted it."

Cagalli smiled weakly to him. "Thank you, Shinn. For those words. Even though to tell you the truth, I've already forgiven you for what you did." Shinn gasped as Cagalli regarded him kindly. "That time, all of us have lost important families and friends... haven't we? Despite that, what you said about my father was too much. Father... has been trying his best to protect everyone after all."

She sighed. "I'm deeply sorry about your family, Shinn."

"No!" Shinn said suddenly. "I was being stupid at that time! I shouldn't expect... too much of Representative Athha. Your father... you... even Kira, were not perfect. I shouldn't have blamed it all to you guys! Certainly... neither of you would predicted _that _to happen."

Cagalli stepped closer to Shinn as she cocked her head at him. "Hmm... I was wondering if you would start bursting into tears again. I heard you did after you found out Kira was Freedom's pilot. Thank goodness you didn't." Shinn looked up to her in surprise. Cagalli turned around and shrugged.

"For a moment there I was thinking... Shinn was a bit like Kira—like that."

Kira blinked. "Eh, Cagalli! Why did you suddenly say things like that?"

Cagalli grinned. "Wasn't it the same? You used to easily cry over everything. I really thought you cannot survive without me around, watching over you."

"Cagalli!" Kira gave a cry as Cagalli suddenly took out Kira's hat before putting it on his head.

"You left this in the car. Be more careful, would ya?" said Cagalli as Athrun chuckled. Kira started pouting as Cagalli gave him no room to counter.

Meyrin started excusing herself to take a look at Minerva as Athrun gestured towards Shinn and Kira. "Don't you mind those two. It has been a long time since the last time they've been apart. So Kira leaving for PLANT might be a bit hard on her."

"Were Kira and Miss Cagalli very close?" Luna suddenly asked.

Athrun shrugged. "Well, for now perhaps this fact was only widely known in ORB... but I guess sooner or later you guys will find out about it," he said before smiling. "Kira and Cagalli are twins."

"Twins?" both of them gasped.

"But how—? Both of their names are different—" said Shinn as Athrun explained.

"Their circumstances were a bit complicated... but it was undeniable that they were indeed related. They have been separated at birth, yet if you look at them now it was as if they never did. Even if one of them was a Natural and another Coordinator, it never stopped them to care for one another. That alone, gave me hope that one day we could _all_ be like them."

"You are really fond of them, aren't you... Athrun?"

Athrun smiled as he turned towards Lunamaria. "Of course. Those two are my most treasured people in my life," he said before walking towards Kira and Cagalli, who... had been taking a long time embracing each other.

"Cagalli... it's not as if you won't see Kira again,"

Cagalli blushed, "Silly! Give me a break here!" she cried out as Athrun lift a finger to wipe away a tear from her eye...

xxx

Shinn let out a long sigh as he eyed his three elders.

"I... can't imagine them to be so close to each other like this—"

Lunamaria turned towards him as Shinn shook his head. "In the past, I've said a lot of cruel things to Athrun and Cagalli, I even tried to kill the three of them in battle. Yet... all I ever receive from them were just a few punches, some scolding and a lot of smiles. I've cursed them a lot whenever people precious to me ended up dead because of battles involving them, yet they didn't even hold grudges on me when I killed a lot of their allies in the past!"

Shinn turned towards her. "How could they be so kind and forgiving?"

Lunamaria smiled weakly. "Perhaps their hearts were _that_ big," she said as she turned to glance at them. "Perhaps the things they have seen during these two wars affected them so much. Compared to them, we know so little... don't we?"

"Lunamaria, Shinn!"

Lunamaria jumped as both of them turned towards Athrun. "How soon do you think we could launch?"

She blinked suddenly as she stuttered. "Umm... Not so soon, I think? Officer Hilda had gone out earlier with her team to handle some of the official business after all. And I heard there were other things going to be loaded into Minerva—"

Athrun smiled. "Good," he answered briefly as he return to join his two friends. Luna and Shinn glanced to each other, puzzled.

xxx

**Aprilius 1, PLANT**, **Lagrange 05**

"I wonder... when will they arrive here?"

Dearka and Yzak glanced up towards Lacus as said songstress put down her work for a moment to take a bit of rest. "It's almost half a year since the last war, isn't it? I wonder how everyone has been faring."

Dearka smiled. "Ha... putting that aside, you were actually thinking more about Kira... weren't you, Lacus?"

Lacus grinned. "How about you? Did you patch up on things with Miriallia?"

"Can you guys be serious for a moment? We still have a lot of things to settle over here!"

Lacus turned her attention towards Yzak before giving him a meaningful look. Yzak blushed before edging away from her, stuttering. Lacus gave Dearka an amused look as both of them laughed. Dearka sighed.

"Haa... long-distanced relationships can be a bit hard to bear, isn't it? When you start to miss one another, but your job and circumstances not allowing you to run towards your loved ones—" Lacus giggled at him as Dearka winked towards her. "But I guess it was equally frustrating, seeing a _short-distance relationship_ not going anywhere either."

"Can you guys shut it out now?" Yzak exclaimed as at that moment someone entered the office suddenly.

"Eh? Is something wrong?" Shiho Hahnenfuss suddenly asked as she put down another batch of folders onto the table. Dearka and Lacus burst out laughing again as Yzak's face turned scarlet.

xxx

**Onogoro harbor, ORB Union**

Kira let out a surprised gasp as a fleet of ORB officers, many of those being the ones who had joined them after the Battle of Crete; as well as Archangel's crew gathered at the harbor to send him and Minerva away. He started to choke as he turned towards Cagalli.

"You can cry if you want, you know?"

"No, I won't!" he snapped back as Cagalli grinned at him, seeing his eyes started to become watery. He turned to Miss Murrue, Mwu, Andrew, Kisaka, Amagi and rest of the fleet. He looked at them fondly before bowing.

"So this is it, I'll be going. I thank you all for everything. I wished you all the best, from the bottom of my heart," he said again before giving them a salute.

"It's the same for us. May we be able to work together again, Admiral Yamato," said Murrue as everyone gave him their salute.

Cagalli turned to Athrun as she smiled.

"Athrun, please send my silly brother to Lacus safely for me," she said as Athrun nodded.

"I will."

xxx

"Are you sure you'll be fine?"

Kira grinned at his friend as they headed towards Minerva's command room. "I am. I already said my goodbyes to Reverend Malchio, my mum and the kids—in case you had been thinking of planning anything funny again."

Athrun chuckled. "Well... I can't help it if other people were concerned about you. You are after all a very important person to many in ORB. Certainly they would want to send you off to space properly."

Kira shrugged as he paused before the entrance. "Regardless, thank you for that... Athrun. I would have found myself difficult to say my goodbyes to them," he said before both of them entered the command room.

Everyone immediately stood to attention as all of them exchanged greetings to each other. Athrun noted some of the old crew members of Minerva remaining as some other position were taken over by the three officers who had served on Eternal as the DOM Troopers. Both of them entered as Kira took his seat on the captain's chair and Athrun took over the position once held by Arthur Trine.

After overseeing everything to be working in order, Kira looked up as he issued his command.

"Minerva, launching!"

xxx

Back at the harbor, Cagalli joined her aunt Caridad as they watched Minerva rise towards space. The older lady smiled to her as Cagalli accompanied her home.


	4. Find the Way

az: But in the end I end up cutting this piece a bit earlier. Muse didn't want to end this so fast. So let's have a filler~

* * *

><p><span>The Battle Afterwards<span>

Find the Way

Written by Izzu

o

o

"After this, depends on all of you," said Kira as Minerva entered space. He excused himself before exiting the command room. Athrun stared at him in concern before leaving his post as well to follow him.

When he caught up with Kira, he grabbed his arm just as Kira reached his own room.

Kira turned as he looked at him worriedly. "What is it, Kira? You looked as if there was something bothering you."

Kira looked up to him as he smiled weakly. "As expected, I cannot hide things from you... is it?" he said before shrugging. Both of them entered the room as Kira sighed.

"I was told not to worry about it too much. But I guess... I can't help it. Even if I have said this before to Chairman Durandal, that I've already prepared myself should we ended up having to face another battle after this; I was feeling anxious."

He turned towards Athrun. "Earlier today, I accidentally overheard a report about a possible new threat to this peace—by a group that might disagree that Lacus and Cagalli were strong enough to maintain the peace between Earth and PLANT. Even though everyone tried to reassure me that I should not worry, I—some of those people who have gone to investigate about this, were people I happened to know! I—"

Athrun smiled. "I guess you're still bad at being a proper leader, eh?"

Kira blinked at him as he shrugged.

"You usually leave those kinds of things to Cagalli and Lacus after all. Perhaps that's what surprised me the most during the last battle when you actually exercised your authority to order Archangel and me to leave your side and destroy the Requiem. But Kira, a part of being a good leader is to have faith in your subordinates' abilities."

Kira snorted to himself. "I guess so. Perhaps I should have more faith on them, eh?"

Athrun nodded as someone suddenly entered the room without warning. Both of the turned to see who it was as Shinn bowed apologetically.

"Sorry for barging in, but _this guy_ was flying around the hangar earlier. So I thought I should bring _him_ here."

Kira gasped as Torii immediately took flight towards him.

"Torii! I thought I had left you with Cagalli!"

Athrun chuckled. "I guess Cagalli had turned it back on and it flew in to find you before we launched."

Kira sighed. "Athrun had made Torii too well...," he said before turning to Shinn. "Sorry about this."

He suddenly let out a soft chuckle. "But really, this brings up old memories. Finally, after so long... I'm really going to PLANT. Not just for a visit, not for a short time, but actually living there."

Athrun smiled at him fondly. "Ah."

xxx

"Is there something else you want to say to me?" Kira asked as Shinn blushed. Athrun smiled and started walking out of the room as to allow them some room. Kira chuckled to himself as he watched him leave.

"Umm..." Kira turned towards Shinn. "There was something I always wanted—I don't know how to say this..."

"We understood, Cagalli and I," Shinn stared at him puzzled as Kira shrugged. "I also used to be in a similar situation. I was just a normal student, yet one day something suddenly happened and I ended up piloting a mobile suit. I didn't want to fight, yet I have to protect everyone. I wanted to protect everyone, yet one by one they slipped pass my fingers. We understood that pain, we ourselves has faced similar situations in the past. So as much as it pained us, we did not blame you for feeling the way you do."

Shinn choked. "I really... went too far, didn't I?"

Kira sighed. "It cannot be helped, can it? You cannot help yourself to feel hurt when it hurts. That's why war is a bad thing. If you just allowed your emotions to take over and not thinking calmly about everything, it would never end."

"I heard... about you from Rey."

Shinn looked at him curiously as he noticed Kira twitched.

"It's so troublesome, what people assumed to be the best for themselves. In the end, what's so special about being the best? In order to make me becoming what I am, so many lives were sarificed. Even our real parents were killed because of this. In the end, aren't we all humans?"

Shinn remained silent as Kira turned to give him a weak smile.

xxx

"Commander Kira! Sensors indicate approach of unknown ship towards Minerva! We detected several mobile suits coming out in an attack formation!" said Meyrin as Kira frowned.

"They probably want to stop us from going to PLANT!" Athrun exclaimed as Officer Hilda stood.

"Commander, leave this to us—"

"**Destiny and Impulse would take care of this!"**

Everyone in the command room looked up towards the screen as Shinn's face appeared on the communicator. He gave a reassuring smile towards Kira.

"**The enemy did not look to be that strong. Both of us should be able to disarm them by ourselves. There's no need to have Freedom and Justice to take care of them."**

Kira snorted as he glanced down towards Athrun. Both of them shared a knowing look before Athrn nodded his head. Kira sat back on his chair as he issued a new order to everyone.

"Condition Red! Prepare for Battle!" barked Kira as the command room moved into battle mode.

xxx

"Are you sure we don't need their help?" asked Lunamaria in jest as Shinn chuckled.

"I could handle this on my own. It's about time I respond to their wishes to wanting to keep this peace. I should not be wasting all that training for nothing."

Shinn could hear Luna laugh from the other side of the hangar as he heard Meyrin gave them clearance to launch. Shinn smiled to himself as he prepared to launch.

"Shinn Asuka, Destiny, launching!"


	5. The Place We Are

az: Apparently Cagalli possessed Kira for a moment in this chapter. XD. I missed the days when Kira and Athrun were so like brothers. But hey~ peaceful timez! And YES SHORT! Since I want the 'cliffhanger' at that point.

And I have a suspicion that this editor eats words. Hmm.

* * *

><p><span>The Battle Afterwards<span>

The Place We are

Written by Izzu

o

o

Athrun joined Kira on the observation deck as his presence was barely noted. Minerva was still in the process of docking so it would still be a while before they could disembark. He coughed slightly louder as to alert his friend.

"Thank goodness it was just a random group of space pirates. Lucky it wasn't anything worse, is it?"

Kira shrugged.

"I asked Colonel Kisaka to connect me to Ame-no-Mihashira before, so that I could talk with Rondo Mina. I heard even more worrying rumours that the unknown enemy might employ _special soldiers_ who were modified to have the appearance and memories of deceased soldiers in the past. Lady Sahaku had looked so distraught, I cannot help being worried as well. About her, Canard... everyone from the Junk Guild. That's why when those pirates appeared, I first thought—what if, it have been _those_ people? What would I do... if those people who would bear the appearance and memories of the people I know or enemies that had fallen in the past, comes to attack us? Would I be able to strike them down? Would you—?"

Athrun placed a hand on his shoulders. "That question, I also... did not know how to answer. Hopefully, all of that was just rumours. If that was true, I wouldn't want to have to kill them either—even if they were just copies of the people they resembled. It would be too painful, wouldn't it? It would even be tougher to let them live either."

Kira smiled weakly to his friend. He sighed.

"Why do people always resorts to fighting? Haven't we all lost so much already?"

Athrun snorted. "Well, some people might still be stubborn. But that's why we're here, right? Even if it might take us a long time, we'll keep on reminding everyone the futilities of wars. This time... for sure, we'll definitely have to make it so that this peace is not shortlived."

Kira nodded before turning his attention towards the docking area. Suddenly, he started to smirk.

"Soon enough, after all of the formalities have been settled—Athrun would return to ORB, right? I'd miss you... definitely. It doesn't look like I could visit so often, after all."

Athrun jumped in surprise. "Kira! Don't change the topic so abruptly! Why—are you having second thoughts? It's too late now to turn back."

Kira snickered. "Perhaps that was the only thing I would be missing. It was such a short time, for the three of us to have lived together away from everything. If only Athrun could be in two places at once."

Kira's eyes twinkled as Athrun blushed. "What are you saying? Don't say such ridiculous things!"

"I can't help it, you know? But what can I do? Both Cagalli and I loved you so much!" Athrun could not reply as Kira wrapped his arm around his neck. "Promise me something, don't leave me out when you finally decided to have that_ big day_."

Kira grinned as Athrun face went even redder. He turned away as Kira continued snickering.

"Idiot. Kira is," he said as Kira chuckled softly.

xxx

"This is it," Kira started to say as all of them entered the elevator.

Athrun snorted. "What? Are you nervous?" he asked as Kira rolled his eyes at him.

"Of course I am! This was different than in ORB! Back there... at least there were a lot of people that I knew, but here—"

"You still have Shinn with you, Lunamaria and Meyrin too. Officer Harken, Simeon, and Officer von Reinhardt also are here. And don't forget about Yzak and Dearka," said Athrun as Kira turned to look to the rest of the people inside the elevator. He smiled apologetically.

"Also... there's Lacus. So don't be too nervous," Athrun added as Kira leered at him. Kira sighed as he took off his hat and sat on the seat at the middle of the elevator.

"Honestly, I'm already worn out!" he exclaimed as Athrun sat beside him. He sighed again as he rested his head on Athrun's shoulders.

xxx

Lunamaria and Shinn exchanged puzzled looks as Meyrin giggled. Lunamaria let out a sigh of defeat as she totally did not understand anything. She started humming to herself as the elevator finally came to a stop. All of them started to stand as the elevator door opened.

The eight of them walked out of the elevator as they were greeted by Miss Lacus Clyne and the rest of the council members. All of them straightened up as they gave their salute.

"Welcome... everyone," Lacus started to say as Lunamaria noticed her eyes started shifting towards Kira. Without warning, Lacus and Kira started running to each other and embraced.

"The what?" she started to exclaimed as other people also made a surprised sound. Luna turned to look at Athrun but he did not look so surprised at this. She turned towards Shinn before shaking her head in puzzlement.


End file.
